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Open Source

Lexaloud

Neural text-to-speech daemon for academic reading-along on Linux

Python Kokoro-82M ONNX Runtime GTK3 systemd Privacy

About Lexaloud

HAVEN Intelligence developed Lexaloud, an open source text-to-speech daemon designed for academic reading-along on Linux. The tool demonstrates our approach to privacy-first AI solutions: a neural voice model runs locally on GPU, no data leaves the machine, no telemetry is collected.

Lexaloud uses the Kokoro-82M voice model via ONNX Runtime to generate natural speech in real time. The user selects text, presses a global hotkey, and Lexaloud reads aloud with sentence-granularity and full control over pause, skip, and back.

Architecture

Lexaloud is built as a Unix domain socket daemon with a GTK3 tray indicator and control window. The architecture separates inference from the user interface, so the voice model runs stably in the background.

Component 1

Daemon (Unix socket)

A background service listening on a Unix domain socket. The daemon receives text, splits it into sentences, and streams speech via Kokoro-82M. Can be managed with systemd or started manually.

Component 2

Kokoro-82M via ONNX Runtime

A neural voice model with 82 million parameters runs locally on GPU. ONNX Runtime ensures fast inference with low latency, generating speech in real time with natural prosody.

Component 3

GTK3 tray indicator and control window

A system tray indicator provides a quick status overview. The control window shows the current sentence and gives access to pause, skip, and back. A global hotkey activates playback from any application.

Key Features

167 tests
in the test suite
100% local
no data leaves the machine
  • ■ Kokoro-82M neural voice model on local GPU via ONNX Runtime
  • ■ Sentence-granularity streaming with pause, skip, and back
  • ■ Global hotkey that works from any application
  • ■ GTK3 tray indicator and control window
  • ■ Multi-distro support: Ubuntu, Fedora, and Arch Linux
  • ■ Privacy: no telemetry, no cloud, no data collection
  • ■ Open source under MIT license

Source Code

Lexaloud is open source and available on GitHub. Browse the code, read the documentation, or contribute to the project.

View on GitHub

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